military bases, USA News (London): The Home Office is looking afresh at potential disused military sites for asylum seeker housing after it was handed £150m in the Budget to speed up the closure of migrant hotels. Ministers have already announced proposals to turn three defunct Ministry of Defence (MoD) bases into housing for around 3,300 male migrants while their asylum claims are assessed. These are RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, Bicester Garrison in Oxfordshire and RAF Barnham in Suffolk. The Chancellor, John Healey, last week announced funding of £150m for “additional large sites” to house asylum seekers. The Government has pledged to end the use of hotels as accommodation for migrants by 2029.
£150m to convert a ‘handful of Army sites’
Treasury sources told The i Paper that the £150m is “new money” which will fund construction on as-yet unspecified “military bases”. Speaking after last week’s Budget, Healey said the funding had been allocated for 2027-28 and would be spent on opening a “handful of Army sites that we’re making available to the Home Office for asylum”. The Home Office declined to say which sites the funding will be used on. However it is understood the department will announce any additional locations for asylum seeker accommodation in due course. A Home Office spokesperson said they want to achieve a “fairer distribution” of housing for asylum seekers across the country by closing hotels and “moving to alternative accommodation”. This includes “former military sites, which are designed to be self-contained to reduce the impact on local communities”.
The number of asylum seekers living in hotel accommodation has halved in the past 12 months and stood at 16,000 in June. This compares to a peak of 56,000 in 2023. The total number of migrants expected to be housed across all newly-sourced military sites has not been disclosed. A total of 1,350 male migrants are currently being housed at two ex-military locations in Crowborough, East Sussex, and Wethersfield, Essex. Ministers are also pressing ahead with consultations for the sites in North Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and Suffolk despite fierce opposition in all three locations including one voting to “leave the UK”.
The 120 defence sites up for sale
The apparent intensification of efforts to repurpose other MoD bases raises the question of which additional sites are likely to be scrutinised by the Home Office to potentially sit alongside the three locations already announced. Among the documents available to officials is a list of 120 defence sites, including barracks and airfields, selected for disposal before 2034. In total, the sites could fit more than 23,000 homes in locations from Catterick in North Yorkshire, to Chilwell in Nottinghamshire. The blueprint, which is part of a programme to reduce the MoD estate across the UK by about 40 per cent, is designed to release land for development purposes such as civilian housing and business parks. It is understood the list could also be used to identify locations that could provide temporary asylum seeker accommodation for the Home Office. Among the locations listed on the document are Linton-on-Ouse and Barnham.
Rejected bases back as proposed asylum sites
The Home Office announced last October that it would use Cameron Barracks, a facility in Inverness, to house up to 300 asylum seekers. But plans were dropped this summer following protests. However, ministers have also returned to previously rejected sites as they seek to increase capacity. Linton-on-Ouse, a former RAF base north of York, was originally earmarked for asylum seeker housing by Boris Johnson’s administration in 2022. These plans were withdrawn in the face of opposition from locals, but resurrected again when Sir Keir Starmer was prime minister. Other locations previously discounted by the Home Office could also be reconsidered in the light of the Treasury’s £150m allocation. In 2023, Catterick Garrison, which covers an area of 10 sq km and is one of the largest military bases in Europe, was added to a list of potential asylum sites under the government of Rishi Sunak, who is the MP for the area. The former prime minister later said officials had ruled that the base was not suitable for housing asylum seekers. Kevin Foster, an independent who represents the Catterick area on North Yorkshire Council, said: “I have heard nothing and I would be very surprised if the issue was up for reconsideration. It was decided that there are multiple reasons why the site would not be suitable.”
Dwindling number of potential sites
However the Government’s military property hunt risks being complicated by a dwindling number of suitable asylum seeker accommodation sites. Several locations previously assessed and put forward as possible sites have since been removed from contention. They include RAF Scampton, a former Dambusters base in Lincolnshire where £60m was spent on preparations for asylum seeker housing before the idea was scrapped in 2024. Local MP Sir Edward Leigh of the Conservative Party recently said the site will instead be taken over by a “world-class defence company”. He claimed the Home Office told him “there will be no migrants” at the facility. Two other potential asylum sites – Forthside Barracks in Stirling and the Kinnegar Logistics Base in Belfast – have since been purchased for redevelopment as a film studio complex and a Police Service of Northern Ireland facility, respectively. The local authority official added: “The reality is that there aren’t actually that many locations that meet the criteria [for housing migrants]. And that’s before you begin to deal with inevitable opposition and possible legal issues. I would suggest that the Home Office have got a difficult task ahead of them.”
